My favorite lettuce is Romaine –usually hearts of Romaine. Wash it well but leave intact.

Cut lengthwise through the entire head at least 4-5 times.

Now slice crosswise about 3/4 to 1 inch apart according to your preference.

Fill salad spinner and spin dry.

Dump into a very large bowl. Fill jars. I pack them as tight as possible.

Seal jars using a wide-mouth jar attachment and a vacuum-pack machine. Screw on rings as insurance to keep lid sealed. Refrigerate up to 1 week or even longer if your lettuce started out very fresh.

Addendum: Only one wide-mouth adapter is required. The round, white attachment you see below goes on top of each jar during the sealing process. First, you put the flat part of the lid on top of the jar. Then you place the wide mouth sealer that has been attached to your machine with the hose you see here (provided with attachment) on top of the jar. Hit the “canister” button. Remove the attachment, leaving the flat lid firmly attached to the jar. Screw collar part of jar lid over the sealed flat lid to insure the lid will not lose its seal over the next few days. Go to next jar and repeat these steps.

Store jars in the refrigerator–up to 10 days depending on how fresh the lettuce was to begin with. These will be like gold when you are hungry and want something healthy but have no energy and/or time to prepare a salad. That would be every morning for me. (Preparing my lunch that is–I don’t eat salad for breakfast.)

ADDENDUM: I’ve had several questions regarding the necessity of a vacuum-pack machine. The secret to the success of salad in a jar is lack of oxygen. You must vacuum-pack to remove the oxygen. See this post for pictorial comparison of various methods of lettuce storage.

I like my salad in small pieces so I chop the lettuce with a knife. Without the vacuum-pack, the cut edges of the lettuce would be brown in a day or two or less. If you leave the lettuce whole, unchopped and untorn, it will last longer even without the vacuum pack. Wash, dry and store in zippered plastic bags with a paper or cloth towel to absorb the moisture. Of course, you can cut the lettuce when you are ready to eat but I like to have everything ready to go so I have NO EXCUSES for not eating a lettuce salad.

Many people have asked about adding other vegetables. This can be done but the shelf-life of the vegetables varies a lot compared to the lettuce. For example, while the lettuce may still be good for several days, the cucumbers you packed with it can go bad within 2-3 days depending on their freshness. I personally, stick to lettuce only and decide each morning what I will eat with it depending on my mood and availability of fruits and veggies. Commenter Rick did a study about this and posted his results here.

For more information about which vacuum-pack machine to buy and other details, see related posts below.

Looking for more ideas to make your diet healthier? Click here to see a few of my own personal skinny secrets.

Hi! I love the idea, and I’m looking forward to trying it. However, I keep stumbling across either really crappy reviews, or crazy price tags. Do you have any suggestions for a relatively poor college student that’s trying to eat healthy? I understand this is an investment n stuff but I have books and rent to worry about , too 🙁

Heidy, Have you checked ebay or craig’s list for a like-new machine? Also, watch the Food Saver website for specials. They frequently run 50% sales. I bought one at Tuesday morning for quite a good price. They don’t seem to last long according to some people’s reviews but I have not had that problem.

Here’s something else to think about. How much would you pay to be healthier and skinnier? Salad in a Jar is no guarantee, of course, but for me, it helps more than anything else to keep my weight in check. It’s my lunch everyday–along with some small, usually-less-than-200 calorie leftover or half sandwich or burrito. I don’t even consider eating out.

I can imagine it would take some real discipline to pull this off in college when your schedule and eating times may be different every day not to mention friends who are tugging at you to go eat junk food with them. Hopefully, you have your own kitchen with a place to store the machine and jars not to mention refrigerator space for the lettuce.

This is great! Thanks! I never would have thought of that. I love salad, I’m vegetarian and need to watch the pounds I put on, so I eat a lot of salad. If I had the money I wasted in lettuce that has gone bad before I could eat it I’d be rich! We have tons of those jars because my grandma used to can, and I know there’s a food saver somewhere I never use. This is the kind of great idea that makes one wish they had thought of it, well done!

Jenni, Same here. All the money I’ve wasted on lettuce I didn’t eat is shameful. But no more.

Just a tip about all the jars grandma used to can….In the old days, everybody used small-mouth jars. Unfortunately, they are much more difficult to pack with lettuce and seal (not sure why they don’t seal as easily) than the wide-mouth jars. If you decide to try this, I would definitely recommend the wide-mouth jars. They are a small investment for a huge but “skinny” return.

You are a genius! I came here from foodgawker to see your french bread recipe and was intrigued by the salad in a jar. We have a foodsaver and I’ve used it on jars for other things, but never this. Coincidentally – I was diagnosed today with diabetes and we were just talking about how to eat better and I find your site. This is the perfect way to do salads in an evening and then grab one on the go each morning. Thank you so much for this!!!

Great idea! I usually keep mine in a Foodsaver cannister. I like the jar idea. There is another way to seal the jars using your Foodsaver if you don’t have the jar sealer. Just put your jar with a lid and screw band on it inside of a Foodsaver cannister. Then suction the air out of the cannister as usual. When it is done remove the lid of the cannister and your jar will be sealed. The air is removed from the jar as it is removed from the cannister. You can now take the screw band off the jar.
Linda A

Kirsten, I took another look and the pictures on the FoodSaver website are a little misleading. (They don’t show the hose that attaches to the machine). I can see why you are confused. See the addendum I added in the post. Hope this clarifies the issue. Again, only one attachment is needed. You use it to seal with the flat part of the metal lid (is there an official name for that? — I don’t know) inside of attachment, then pull it off and go to next jar.

Hi Paula, like Ruthann (comment from July 8th), I’m confused about whether or not you have to buy a jar sealer attachment for each jar … your pictures look like you still use the mason jar lids but the link to the website makes it sound like the jar seal attachment remains on the jar until you open it … so 6-7 if you are doing a weeks worth of salads at once. Can you clarify for us?

Thank you Paula! I just ordered my Jar Sealer, so excited!! This will really help me because I already store much of my food in glass jars. We shop at Costco, it’s similar to Sams, and I often have to toss out lettuce because I can’t eat it fast enough.

I’ve never heard of a Food Saver Jar Sealer. All I know about is the jar sealer attachment. Of course, you have to have a vacuum pack machine for the attachment. If you have a link on the web, send it and I’ll check it out.

I love your sight and visit it often. The “salad in the jar” idea is genius! I ordered the 2 jar lid sealers for my foodsaver and it works great. Thanks so much, I am starting Weight Watchers again and this will help a lot.

This is really a great idea. However lettuce does get a little boring so maybe some baby spinach, purple cabbage, a few plum tomatoes, carrot sticks, slices of radishes,baby peas,some edamame and some unsalted sunflower seeds and slivered almonds. Please when opening this jar of goodies stay away from all the salad dressings that are high in sodium and high fructose corn syrup. A few drops of olive oil , red vinegar or a few sprays of Balsamic Spritzer is really good. Food savers are great . We use it on all our salmon and chicken breast. Our food saver doesn’t have the port for the lid assembly so I guess were stuck.

I found your website a while back and I have to say you are so right about the salad in a jar! I had to try for myself because I use the foodsaver put corn in the freezer and it is so good even a year after freezing it. I still wasn’t sure it wouldn’t turn brown, so I cut up my lettuce 9 days ago and it is still as green and fresh as the day I sealed it. I only did 2 jars to see for myself. It is awesome! I am glad to find more uses for my foodsaver and to stop wasting food. Thank you so much and I will be checking your website often.

have used a vacuum sealer for many years, haven’t thought of this application but I’m sure going to try it! Sounds like a winner. I’ve used mason jars for many years also and love them to freeze things like sauces and soups because it is easy to thaw in the micro or in a pan of room temp water
before re-heating

Helen, Thanks for your idea. I’ve tried it before and the plastic serrated knife is fine–but not needed if you vacuum- pack in glass jars. The edges don’t turn brown no matter how you cut them. And since I do this in quantity, I want the best, sharpest knife possible so it will go fast. Since I’ve been doing this for years, it only takes me about 20 minutes to prepare salad for 6-7 days.

Ok…as I read this it sounds great…. I can see spending 170 dollars for the vacuum machine….

But as I read more – I see that I have to buy one of those special lids for each of the jars I want to seal. According to the manufactures page, I cannot use canning lids for this….
But when I look at your site – it seems like you are saying I can use just the canning lids….

You don’t have to use one of those attachments for each jar, and you do reuse the canning lids.

I’ve found a better approach–part of it is what is suggested here–poke a small hole in a canning lid, then use tape (I use scotch, others suggest plastic electrical tape) to seal the hole. I just lightly put the tape on over the hole, then use one of those hand held Ziploc vacuum pumps (they’re sold at Walmart to vacuum seal special bags for very cheap–$3-$4). I put the pump over the tape and hole, but try to leave an edge of the tape free (in other words, not held down by the pump), and then pump several times to get the vacuum seal. There’s a little bit of an art to it, but once you get the idea, it works quite well. (I’ve had a few bad lids that wouldn’t seal, maybe because they were very old and the rubber cracked.)

If you use the hole in the lid approach, the lids are very easy to remove for reuse–just lift the tape to break the seal).

You can also reuse canning lids that have been sealed without the hole (including if they’ve been used in a “real” boiling water or pressure canning process) if they are in good condition and if you learn the trick for taking them off without bending them. The trick I learned (from someone else) is to take something like the handle of a typical teaspoon (one you’d stir your coffee with), put it on the thread of the jar, and run it up the thread until it touches and then lifts off the lid).

While I’d doing a partial brain dump here, the one thing I’m cautious and slightly worried about is botulism. Foodsaver warns against vacuum sealing soft cheeses because of the possibility of botulism. (I would like to vacuum seal cream cheese (while refrigerating it). Foodsaver warns against this, but a UK site seems to think it is OK.)

The salad ingredients we’re talking about here (lettuce, carrots, peas, broccoli, etc) are not acidic, and this vacuum sealing process is not a real canning process, so there would seem to be potential for the growth of botulism producing bacteria. I will keep trying to learn more, and, will err on the side of caution in throwing any of the salads away if I start to see signs of spoilage.

I LOVE this idea! My husband has been buying the bagged salads forever because our local grocery store would put them on “clearance” a few days before they were to expire. Lately though he says they have not been having them discounted so he’s stopped eating salads as much. We’ve had a Foodsaver for years and I’ve not used it in a couple of those year…but I may have to order the attachment and pull it out. Ironically I also just came across some off the canning jars in the attic and thought I should just donate them…now I’ve found a new use for them.

I will be posting this tip on my blog too–what a great meal planning trick! Thanks!

After finding your blog, I had to give this a try. I bought the wide mouth attachment and I have been doing my salads this way for the past 3 weeks and I LOVE it. I just grab a jar in the morning on my way to work and it has made mornings much quicker and my Friday salad is as fresh as Monday’s salad. Thanks for sharing your great ideas.

Just found your site and LOVE it. I have a food saver machine, with a few plastic jars included. Does the food saver machine work on the mason jars? I’m not sure I understand how you would take the air out without the handy hole that the included plastic jars have. Since I LOVE dessert (especially the coffee angel food cake) need to eat those salads.

I have been using the Foodsaver for years. You are spot on with using the jars. My only suggestion would be, try not to cut lettuce with a knife. Just tear it with your hands. The leaves will not turn brown so quickly. A great idea and thanks for sharing. Your pictures are fantastic.

I hear ya about the knife. However, I make this stuff in a huge quantity—and I like small pieces. It would take me forever. I have found the lettuce does not brown on the edges when vacuum packed even when cut with a knife so I chop away. Thanks for visiting.

I love this idea. I’m not a big salad fan but really need to do something to eat healthier. Can I ask what it was that made you start to like eating salad? Is it that you did it so frequently you just started liking it? If someone has prepared a nice salad, I will enjoy it but I dread making my own so I’m hoping this idea will help me! 🙂

For me, learning to eat salad started with eating salads packed with flavorful stuff that might not have been all that healthy–a salad dressing that I like, bacon bits, possibly shredded cheese or cold meat, tomatoes. Over time I’ve learned to include more and more healthy stuff (with crunch) (carrots, broccoli, snap peas, green pepper, sometimes beans like garbanzo or kidney beans) and less of the unhealthy stuff. I substituted those “fake” (vegetable based) bacon bits for the real thing, and rarely add cheese or meat any more (although that wouldn’t be all bad).

The most recent improvement is finding out this site–now I cut up a head of lettuce and pack it into pint jars with other vegetables (except tomatoes). So, to make a salad, I just get out a jar of salad, dump it in a bowl, cut up part of a tomato, add it, some croutons, some bacon bits, and salad dressing. Much less of a hassle than cutting up part of a head of lettuce each time.

I am not sure how I found your blog but I tried your salad in a jar and LOVE IT! I tried mine with carrots and cut up tomatoes and it worked but I would add cherry tomatoes next time. I am going to try with lettuce, spinach and cabbage too. I love being able to grab one out of the fridge when ever I need it. I have gotten hooked on adding beans to my salad! Thank you thank you thank you for sharing this AWESOME idea. I will never go back to making daily salad!
Shorty

Hi, Paula, I love this idea. My dad just bought me a foodsaver several months ago. I work full time and have a wonderful and energetic 3 year old. I am always on the go and always looking for time saving tips. I love salad, and is time consuming to make. I can’t wait to try this, I will need to buy the jar attachment. Thank you!!!

I’ve been researching this topic for a while and I’d like to offer a suggestion for those cramped for funds. I don’t have a vacuum sealer yet, but the information for a Pump N Seal has me leaning in that direction. Pump n Seal goes for about $32.00, and it is capable of 25+ inches of mercury. I think it’s a mediocre choice for bags (from what I’ve read) but probably a good choice for those who use jars.

I used quart mason jars a while back for salads with lots of other veggies included. I don’t have a vacuum sealer (yet), and I did experience some browning as you suggested, but only after about 4 days. It seems logical that the vac pack idea could concievably double that time in a good cold fridge, and I was excited to see this page. I was about ready to pull the trigger on a pump n seal before reading this, but I’m gonna order it for sure now. I want to try both the little valve thingys and the FoodSaver Lid Sealers, as I can see uses for both methods. Thanks for posting this and all the pictures!

Love the lettuce in a jar idea! I recently used my foodsaver to preserve chocolate in various forms (chips, candy bars, powder, etc. and also a variety of seeds,nuts, snack mixes and dried fruits–I love knowing I have all those things that don’t need refrigeration in my pantry (for a pantry, it’s huge- roughly 5×15′!) We also pressure can beans and meats and I want to can some breads and cakes and butter, too. I think I’ll try using the foodsaver to seal some cereals and baking ingredients, too. It’s great that jars can be opened, partially used and resealed several times. Thanks for sharing!

I love this idea.
We have had a Foodsaver machine in the family but it was generally only used around this time of year to package & freeze venison that the menfolk got during the deer hunting season here in Wisconsin.
Thanks again.

I have thought and thought about buying a FoodSaver. It’s just my husband and I and he travels a lot – sometimes last minute. Balancing grocery shopping is tough. I can’t stand to have food go to waste – I might finally have to get one of these.

Everyone has their own kitchen tricks – I love learning about all of them.

As a personal chef, I have been leaving salads in gallon ziploc bags for my clients for years. I leave a fresh paper towel or two crunched up and they stay well for a week or longer. They are always amazed!

I got a foodsaver for an early birthday present. I’m waiting for the wide mouth attachment to come from Amazon. Do you have any other good advice for ways to use the foodsaver? I’m planning on getting some lettuce to try soon.

Gina,
You can put just about ANYTHING in the mason jars with vacuum sealing. It will never take the place of canning, so stuff that has to be refrigerated still needs to go in the fridge.
-When you open a canister of coffee, transfer 2/3 of the can into mason jars and seal. It really keeps the flavor much better that way.
-Seal cottage cheese, or cubed/shredded cheese
-You can freeze in mason jars as long as they are the sloped size jars. As tempting as it may be, don’t pop ’em straight from freezer into microwave. With the sloped jars, you can rinse the sides of the jars to loosen the contents and they will slide out easily. Soup works great like this.
-You can seal ANYTHING you’d normally keep on the shelf: popcorn, pancake mix (I buy the big 5lb bags of krusteez mix), brown sugar, rice, tea bags, oatmeal, just about anything you can think of. It keeps the staples bug free, moisture-free, and fresher longer
-use small jars for long term spice storage
-The wide mouth jars are also good for marinating meat (foodsaver sells a device for this but it is pricey) that is either cubed or in smaller sizes. Marinating goes much faster because the vacuuming pulls the liquid into the pores of the meat, I think
-You can toss fresh veggies in jars and keep them in the fridge (I like celery sticks, carrots sticks, cucumber wedges)
-The sky is the limit.
Note: you can re-use the lids indefinitely as long as you don’t bend them (which can happen when you pry them off). For things that I use often (like tea bags) I use the pin-hole trick. You can find it online in a bunch of places, but in a nutshell: you poke a small hole in the top of the lid, and then put a piece of electrical tape over it. Seal like normal, but then when you want to access your contents, you can pull up on the tape and it releases the seal and the lid can be pulled off easily. Simply put the tape back on and seal back again. I wouldn’t recommend this for anything you keep long-term, but for often-accessed items it works like a charm.

I would not recommend your technique with tea or coffee – at least not more than once for storage. Every time you ‘re-seal’ you are literally sucking aromatics out of the bean/leaves. That is why most coffee roasters have swtiched to actually pressurizing the tins with inert gases (to keep the oxygen away) rather than sucking the air out. Coffee should also be away from light, so if you go with a clear jar, put it in a cupboard.

The best way to keep coffee is freezing – go straight from the freezer to the grinder. If you buy ground coffee, then all is lost already 😉

Gina,
I make homemade jam. I’ve spoiled my kids – none of them will eat store-bought jam. This caused my Naval LT son a problem, ’cause they don’t have homemade jam on US ships. I didn’t want to mail jars which could break, so tried sealing it in foodsaver bags, and sending them with plastic storage containers. It works great! Now I can send all kinds of food items to family all over the country! You just have to gauge when to hit the “seal” button so it doesn’t suck the jam out, or squash the cookies or breads.

vicsailgarden, I’m not sure about the lemon or vinegar. But I’m skeptical. Oxygen is the culprit. That’s why the vacuum pack lettuce stays fresh so long. No oxygen inside that jar. If you eat a lot of salad or would like to, it’s worth the money.

My family is leaving for vacation and I’m staring at my foodsaver and the 5 heads of Romaine lettuce I have waiting to be preserved. 🙂 However, when I use my salad spinner, it never dries the lettuce completely. Do you seal with the residue moisture or do you have a secret of how to get your lettuce bone dry? I have placed in an unbleached pillowcase and ran it through the spin cycle in my washing machine and it works very well but I’d like to make sure the lettuce isn’t stripped of it’s moisture. Any advice would be great as we’re leaving tomorrow. 😉

What a great and creative way to do lettuce. I have looked at vacuum pack machines but was never sure what I thought of them. I love this idea. I have been working to loose those extra baby pounds and this looks like an excellent way to stay motivated. Thanks for sharing your ideas! My husband is from Indiana. We don’t live there, but I notice I admire the ladies I have met from IN. They are practical and capable. Good problem solvers and lots of fun too. I found your site when I read 9-11 comments on PW’s web site. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROMAINE!

I stick to lettuce because 1) different foods have different lifespans under vacuum–can depend on their freshness too. I want my lettuce to last at least 8-9 days and not sure other things can go that long. 2) I’m not really big on raw vegetables other than tomatoes (which I don’t refrigerate) and carrots. I LOVE veggies–but prefer them at least slightly cooked. But it might work great for you. Let me know…

Great idea! I tend to like my salads about 50% romaine, 40% other chopped vegetables and 10% combined other (fruit, cheese, nuts, salad dressing, avacado, etc.)

Had you tried a test of how long these last without the vacuum seal? I think the lettuce by itself might hold up for a few days. I’ll have to check it out. Love the fact that it is in re-usable glass! Thanks for the idea.

I haven’t officially tried it without a seal. However, I’ve had jars lose their seal and they go bad in a day or two. When oxygen hits all those cut edges, the lettuce turns brown and limp in a hurry–just like the bags of prepared lettuce at the grocery store. Vacuum packing is the secret.

I’ve learned to always screw the collar on the jar to prevent losing the seal.

Hi Val, Thanks for writing.
Have you tried a side by side experiment? Several people have said the same about a plastic knife. But when I did a side by side test, there was no comparison. The vacuum-packed cut lettuce stayed fresh much longer. You can read about it here.

I plan to buy a ceramic knife and try the same experiment, although I am dubious. It is the lack of oxygen that keeps the cut edges from turning brown. Regardless, I will post the results when I do it. Thanks for the challenge.

Sorry, my comment wasn’t clear. I meant that using a ceramic knife will keep lettuce fresher than using a metal knife, but not as fresh as using a vacuum seal. That’s for those of us who don’t have vacuum sealers. Ceramic knives are much sharper than plastic ones, at least on par with my steel knives if not better. My favourite benefit is that ceramic slices tomatoes incredibly well; much better than anything else I’ve ever used.

Jean SummersAugust 9, 2009 at 1:38 pm

I love your website! Your sister, Kay, and I have been friends for a long time and have been out West with her and Elliott many times. She told me about your website. I love to cook and try new recipes. We eat lots of salads and I am going to try your salad in a jar method.